Like a patient slowly dying of cancer, The University of Memphis Libraries are withering under the burden of Tennessee's woeful lack of higher education funding.
According to the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries, The University's libraries rank at or near the bottom of every major statistical category when compared to its peer institutions.
The ASERL is a network of more than 40 state and research libraries that share information and resources.
"We need money -- and not just $100,000," said Ed Frank, chair of the Faculty Senate's library policy committee. "We need millions."
According to Frank, most of The University's peer institutions allocate around four percent of their total budget for library expenses. In comparison, The University sets aside about two percent of its total budget for library costs.
According to the ASERL, these peer institutions include Duke University, The University of Tennessee and The University of Alabama.
The ASERL report for 1998-99, the last date for which figures are available, states The University ranked near the bottom of the list in expenditures for total library materials, spending $2,825,772 for the year. The U of M is just ahead of Air University of Montgomery, Ala. and East Carolina University in this category. The University of North Carolina, first on the list, spent a whopping $10,095,066.
The University's libraries are near the bottom of the list in the net amount of volumes added, adding just 15,396 volumes for the year. Mississippi State University topped the list, adding nearly 10 times that number.
The University's libraries are near the bottom of the list for expenditures per student. The University's libraries spent $192.35 per student -- Wake Forest University spent five times that amount per student.
U of M libraries are also near the bottom of the total serials received list, acquiring 8,005 serials. According to library staff, serials are any publications that come out on a regular schedule. The University of Tennessee, first on the list, received 49,800 serials during the same period.
Staffing shortfalls further plague The University's library system. U of M libraries employ only 29 professional librarians, while the average ASERL library employs 61 professional librarians.
Some students may not be able to find the books they need because of the lack of funds and the absence of a staff member assigned to acquire new books. "We're unusual among our peer institutions in that most of the money allocated for new materials is for faculty teaching requests," Frank said.
Josh Lope, a political science and philosophy major, said he wanted to check out John Lennon: In His Own Write, only to discover the library did not have the book.
Dr. Don Franceschetti, a physics professor, said his department has to do without many of the journals it needs.
Departments all over The University are feeling the library's budget noose tighten. A report from the Faculty Senate library policy committee shows that each academic department received only $2,000 to make purchases.
"The Committee agreed, given the extremely low level of support (some $125,000) to be allocated across some 40 academic departments, that the across-the-board allocation of $2,000 to each department is fair and reasonable," Frank said in a letter to the faculty.
Attempts by the Daily Helmsman to reach Sylverna Ford, dean of The University libraries, were unsuccessful.
